


Pleased To Be Of Service

by oneprotagonistshort



Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Retail, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-25
Updated: 2013-06-25
Packaged: 2017-12-15 21:10:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/854086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oneprotagonistshort/pseuds/oneprotagonistshort
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anyone who works retail can tell you how much it sucks, and Kurt's not about to disagree. Between angry customers, a clothing department that never seems to stay organized, and the ungodly uniforms, he's not even sure it's worth his crappy paycheck. At least, not until he meets Blaine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pleased To Be Of Service

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like any of my fellow retail workers will empathize with this all too well, but it's certainly understandable for everyone. The chain the boys work at in this fic is a fictional one called Wagner's, because real chains have lawyers that I'm afraid of as a current employee. Much in the same way that The Lima Bean is not Starbucks, Wagner's is definitely not Target.
> 
> Written for [Klaine Hiatus Madness!](http://klainehiatusmadness.tumblr.com/)

**Mother’s Day Weekend**

Kurt feels just about ready to snap. It’s been a long few days of people buying clothes for their moms and asking if he thinks something will fit someone he’s never seen, and if _one more person_ complains that all the fuzzy slippers are gone, he’s going to lose it and inform them that fuzzy slippers are tacky and unoriginal and maybe they should put a little more thought into their gifts. Mother’s Day brings out the worst in him sometimes, Carole is amazing but it’s just not the same and seeing people complain about buying gifts for a mom they can go home and hug sets him on edge.

Which is why he’s not pleased when he hears his walkie crackle from where it’s clipped to his belt with a call to the clothing department. “Go for Kurt,” he says as nicely as possible, which at this point in his shift is not actually that nice.

He vaguely recognizes the voice that answers with, “Hey. I have a customer up here with one of the dresses from the new line, it’s ringing as $29.99 but she’s saying it was marked as clearance for $7.48. Can you double check that for me?”

Kurt rolls his eyes, knowing exactly which customer he’d be dealing with. He’d had to refold a table of tank tops twice after she’d been through his section, and he remembers telling her specifically that the new stuff is full price. “Yeah, gimme a sec,” he says as he walks up to the display. “The sign here specifically says $29.99,” he confirms, waiting for a minute to see if he’d be needed for anything else.

His walkie crackles again, “Can you bring the sign up here? She says she’s sure it’s clearance.” Kurt groans, he has better things to do, but customer service is the number one priority here at Wagner’s, and he grabs the sign and heads for the front lanes.

He spots the woman instantly, scowling at register ten with the dress in her hands while a line slowly builds behind her. He hands the sign to the guy he’d been talking to, a quick check of his nametag confirming that Kurt had been right in thinking it was Blaine, and waits for the shitshow he knows is coming.

Blaine, who is wearing a gingham monstrosity of a bow tie with his corporate-branded light blue polo shirt and navy slacks, turns back to the woman and smiles. “Ma’am,” he says, “the sign here says it’s full price.”

“It wasn’t on the full-price rack,” the woman insists. “It was on clearance. He must have put it back wrong,” she points at Kurt, growing increasingly irate. Someone from the grocery department flicks on a register light to ring out the people she’s holding up.

Kurt feels the last of his resolve shatter. “It was in the right spot and all the new stuff is pretty clearly labeled,” he says sharply. He’s not being rude, exactly, but in retail the customers are like little kids. They like big smiles and happy voices and no problems, so when something goes wrong they start to get cranky. The edge in Kurt’s voice might as well be a personal insult.

Blaine must realize this, because his voice goes up half an octave and he gives the woman a 100-watt smile. “You know what?” he says, typing something into the register, “I’ll just go ahead and change that for you, mistakes do happen sometimes.” The woman smiles smugly at Kurt and he resists the urge to give her the middle finger. “There you go!” Blaine says, waving over the regular cashier to finish the transaction. The poor girl looks like she’d been about to cry, which is probably why Blaine had intervened. Having gotten her way, the customer goes back to talking about the weather like it’s no big deal, but Kurt isn’t as easily placated.

“Hey,” he says, following Blaine over to the customer service desk, “can you get the front end manager out here? That woman’s in here all the time, she moves stuff on purpose so that she can ‘find’ it on the wrong shelf and get the price changed.” 

Blaine sighs, a little bit of his chipper facade slipping. “What do you need?” he asks.

“I need the front end manager,” Kurt repeats. “Do you know where he is?”

Blaine’s brow furrows and he tilts his head to the side. “Uh, I’m the front end manager,” he says, and Kurt has a hard time believing him. Blaine’s really young to have gotten that kind of promotion. Blaine seems to sense his confusion though, so he clarifies. “I’m the front end manager when Mark’s not here, and he’s not here because he called out again. So what do you need?”

Kurt doesn’t really know what to do, so he settles for apologizing because Blaine looks kind of put out and something about his stupid earnest eyes makes Kurt feel like a dick. “Sorry,” he says. “I didn’t mean to snap at you, it’s just been that kind of day. I hate Mother’s Day enough without people like her making it worse,” he nods in the direction of the door where the customer is just leaving with her bags.

“You hate Mother’s Day?” Blaine asks. “I get that the retail sucks, but why?” He looks mildly concerned, as if hating any kind of holiday is fundamentally confusing to him.

So it’s going to be that kind of conversation. “My mom died when I was a kid,” Kurt says, hating that he’s once again the guy with the dead mom, but half hoping it’s enough of a reason for him to get away with slacking a little for the rest of the day.

Blaine’s eyes widen a little and oh shit, he’s totally going to pull the typical “I’m sure she’s with you in spirit” crap. He surprises Kurt though, and all he says is, “I’m sorry to hear that,” before he’s called away by the flashing light of another cashier needing his help. He offers up a small smile and leaves Kurt wondering what the hell just happened and who Blaine even is.

 

**Memorial Day Weekend**

_Time and a half,_ he thinks to himself for the millionth time. He’s making enough money by being at work on a holiday that it’s worth cleaning up the sandal aisle every thirty minutes, but only barely.

He glances at his watch and looks around him. Things are slow enough for now that he can finally justify taking his lunch. He picks up his walkie and says, “Hey guys this is Kurt, I’m going on my lunch.” The chorus of confirmations assure him that he’s good to go, and he’s glad that he’s finally gotten away because he’s _starving_. He’s used to eating earlier in his shift but the mess in the shoe department had kept him on the floor later than usual.

He passes the front lanes on his way to the break room, but he doesn’t see Blaine. He waves to Carrie, his favorite cashier, and punches his code into the lock on the break room door. He’s pleased to find Blaine already sitting at a table when he walks into the kitchen, and they exchange smiles. Blaine looks antsy, but he’s got a cup of coffee in front of him, so Kurt just figures it’s not his first of the day. Holiday weekends take a toll on everyone, and Blaine’s been working like crazy to keep up. He’s only nineteen but he works harder than half of the employees who are twice his age, and he takes pride in his work. “Late lunch?” he asks, and Kurt nods.

Grabbing his lunch out of the fridge, Kurt sits down across from Blaine. They’ve been seeing more of each other lately, like that one encounter had opened the floodgates to dozens more. It’s gotten to the point that Kurt looks for Blaine in the break room on his lunches and is disappointed when he’s not there. “Shoes were a mess,” he explains, popping open his lunch box, “I couldn’t get away until just now. How long do you have left?”

Blaine glances at the clock. “Not long” he says, and looks down at Kurt’s lunch. “Okay I have to ask,” he says. “What is that lunch box from? I know I recognize it from something but I can’t place what it is.”

Kurt smiles. “This?” he asks casually, though he’s secretly really pleased with it. “This is from the 1998 domestics collection from here at Wagner’s. I found it on eBay.” He picks up a pretzel and pops it in his mouth to seem casual.

“You...” Blaine pauses, his sentence half formed. “You are unbelievable,” he says when he pulls himself together again, but he’s smiling. “I feel like I had one like that when I was in kindergarten. How much vintage Wagner’s stuff do you own?”

“A lot,” Kurt admits. “It started when management told me to tone down my wardrobe. I don’t see why it was necessary because it was all navy pants and light blue shirts but I guess I was too fabulous for customers to realize I was an employee.” Blaine laughs and Kurt continues, “I decided that if I’m going to be forced into a very small fashion box, I should do it right. We didn’t get a clothing line here until the late ‘90s but I’ve found accessories from as far back as I can.” He shrugs, “Wagner’s chic.”

Blaine laughs. “I think I remember the incident with management. Steve had to make Lauren tell you because he was afraid to.” He reaches across the table and snags a pretzel (stealing each other’s food is a habit they’ve developed) before glancing at the clock again and standing up. “Back to work,” he sighs. “Carrie will kill me if I forget to send her on her fifteen again.”

Kurt waves goodbye and starts in on his sandwich, and sure enough Carrie joins him a few minutes later. “Late lunch?” she asks, and Kurt looks up in surprise at where she’s shoving change into a vending machine.

“How do you know when my lunch is?” he asks, because cashiers don’t get a copy of the schedule and she doesn’t have a walkie to hear him complain about it.

She takes her soda out of the machine and sits down where Blaine had been. “I can pretty much tell when your lunches are based on when Blaine takes his breaks.”

“What?” he asks, handing her half of his cookie.

She accepts it and says, “You and Blaine have at least one break together like every single day. You know that’s not just random, right?” When Kurt doesn’t seem to get it, she elaborates, “Blaine writes his own break schedule, Kurt. He times his lunches so that he can hang out with you as much as possible.”

Kurt chokes on his half of the cookie. “Why?”

Carrie gives him a look that he knows too well, it’s the same one he gives Finn when he’s being particularly dense. All she says is, “Oh please,” and then she refuses to answer any more questions about it until they both have to go back to work.

 

**Father’s Day Weekend**

After Memorial Day, Kurt had finally taken some initiative and suggested to Blaine that they hang out outside of work. It had gone spectacularly, and they’d quickly become very good friends. Movie nights, dinners at Breadstix, and even plans for a mini road trip to Columbus for a concert the following month were all coming together to form something fantastic.

Kurt’s even told Blaine all about his heartbreak over NYADA, how two years later he’s devastated that he didn’t go to New York right away, how he’s been working his ass off at the Lima Community College to be able to transfer with an extra semester’s worth of credits now that he’s finally been accepted. Blaine listens attentively to everything and tells Kurt that he thinks he’d like Rachel, though he’s not sure he could live with her like Kurt is going to in the fall.

In exchange, Blaine’s told Kurt about private school prestige and although he’s a little jealous of the environment Blaine went to high school in, Kurt doesn’t envy the pressure that came with it. Blaine had been accepted to several universities, but at the last minute decided that none of them were what he was looking for. He wants to follow his heart even though he’s not really sure where it’s taking him, and he doesn’t want to get there by name-dropping a well-known prep school. He wants to earn things for himself, so he’d taken the summer after high school off, was hired at Wagner’s in November for seasonal work, and in a year and a half he’d earned himself promotions it usually took three years to get. 

Kurt is amazed by Blaine on a regular basis, and is about as amazed that his growing crush hasn’t become glaringly obvious.

Blaine, however, seems pretty oblivious. So oblivious, in fact, that he runs directly into Kurt when he steps out the front door of Wagner’s just as Kurt’s walking in. “Hey!” Kurt says, caught off balance but stabilizing himself with a hand on Blaine’s shoulder. “Are you just leaving?”

“Yeah, I opened today,” Blaine says, looking tired (he doesn’t handle early mornings well) but smiling at Kurt anyway. “I’m leaving early to do a Father’s Day afternoon with my dad. He and my mom are leaving later tonight to go visit my brother in LA so we’re doing our celebration now. It’s all very last minute.”

Kurt isn’t surprised Blaine’s not going with them, if it’s a last minute trip Blaine wouldn’t have had time to request the time off and he objects to calling out unnecessarily on a moral level. “Well I get out at eight,” Kurt says, thankful for the earlier closing hour on Sundays. “You’re welcome to come get ice cream with me and my dad.”

Blaine beams, he likes Burt and Burt likes him, and Kurt hopes he takes him up on the offer. “I’ll see what I can do,” Blaine says, and Kurt has to leave it at that before he’s late for his shift.

Fortunately, Father’s Day isn’t as rough on the clothing department as some other holidays are. The menswear section is smaller and ties don’t take as long to organize as dresses do, so by 8:15 Kurt is able to clock out so he can drive home to pick up his dad.

He’s surprised to see Blaine’s car pulled into the spot next to his and Blaine leaning against the side of it with that 100-watt smile on his face. “Well aren’t you a sight for these sore eyes,” he calls across the parking lot, pulling his keys out of his pocket to unlock the car and laughing when Blaine jumps at the noise. “What’s up, did they call you back in for something?”

“Kurt,” Blaine calls back, “I’m not in my Wagner’s outfit. I can’t believe you didn’t notice!” He gestures at himself and sure enough, he’s in his street clothes and smiling like an idiot.

Kurt finally gets to where they’re parked and stands next to Blaine, mimicking his pose and leaning against his car. “I take it you’re coming out with us tonight?” he asks.

“Well,” Blaine says coyly, “I like your dad, and I really _really_ like ice cream, so it was kind of a no-brainer.”

“Nothing else you like?” Kurt asks, bumping his shoulder against Blaine’s. There’s a playful tension there, like this thing they’ve been dancing around might actually happen tonight. That or it’ll crash and burn, Kurt thinks, but at least he’ll know either way.

Blaine turns his head to look at Kurt, closer than he’d been a minute ago, and pretends to think. “Nope,” he says, but he’s smiling too much for Kurt to take him seriously. “I’m just in it for the ice cream.”

He leans in a little, and Kurt seizes the opportunity and twists around to kiss him. It’s short and it’s sweet and they’re both giddy and giggling but there’s a promise of more behind it. The store goes dark, shut down for the night and leaving them with no light but one row of parking lot lamp posts that are left on so employees can get to their cars.

They linger for another minute before separating to drive themselves to Kurt’s house, and the second Kurt’s alone in his own car he fires up his bluetooth and calls Rachel. She hounds him for details until Blaine pulls into Kurt’s driveway behind him and he’s forced to hang up on her.

Blaine has somehow found a Wagner’s baseball cap from the corporate store and gives it to Burt over ice cream.

 

**Fourth of July**

_Time and a half,_ Kurt thinks. It’s become his summer mantra, helping him get through insane weeks that lead up to insane days like July 4th. He feels like he lives at Wagner’s, cleaning up bathing suits and putting back dresses and locating individual shoes when they go missing from their boxes. He tries not to complain because he’s making enough money in one week to pay his utilities bill in New York for three months, but it’s hard.

He lets himself complain a little when it comes to his free time, though. He and Blaine have barely seen each other at work, let alone outside of work. The main front end manager had pulled his usual crap and gotten “sick,” calling out for the entire week, so Blaine basically took over the job entirely. He’s been pulling ten hour days, putting out fires left and right, and he barely has time to take breaks at all so scheduling them at the same time as Kurt’s is out of the question. 

Kurt misses him. It’s been an amazing few weeks and he’s sad they’ve lost that momentum, though he doesn’t doubt that it’ll pick right back up once everything else slows down. He lets himself mope about it anyway.

It’s a nice surprise when he hears Blaine’s voice on the walkie, asking him to switch to one of the lesser used frequencies. “What’s up?” he asks, wondering what Blaine could need from him that couldn’t be asked on the main channel.

“Hey,” Blaine’s voice is staticky through the walkie but less harried than it’s been in a while. “Can you come up to the overflow room? I need you to take a look at something.”

Kurt doesn’t know what the hell Blaine is talking about. “The overflow room? Blaine, we don’t even keep clothes in there.”

“Just get up here,” says Blaine, and a little bit of that frantic edge is seeping back into his voice. “It’ll be quick, I promise, it’s just hard to explain when you’re not looking at it.”

The channel goes dead and Kurt shrugs, waving to get Heather’s attention and pointing at his walkie to let her know that he’d be gone for a few minutes. He heads up towards the front of the store, looking for the door by cosmetics and wondering what on earth there could possibly be that he’s needed for.

The overflow room isn’t like the back room, it’s small and usually empty, full of stuff from stationary and home goods that doesn’t quite fit on the shelves when they have too much of something. There are no clothes in the overflow room, and Kurt’s still trying to think of a reason for him to be here when he opens the door.

He barely has time to close the door behind him before Blaine’s on him almost instantly, kissing him hard and fast and desperate, like they haven’t had time for this in days. They _haven’t_ had time for this in days, so Kurt doesn’t question it. He just brings a hand up to cup the back of Blaine’s neck and curses the gel because Blaine’s got a hand in his hair and he’d really like to return the favor. They can worry about style later, for right now his main concern is getting Blaine as close as possible.

When they finally pull apart to breathe, Kurt’s grinning like a madman. “Did you really call me up here to make out? You know we have jobs to do, right?”

Blaine looks mildly sheepish and says, “No we don’t. I’m on my fifteen and I bribed Heather to cover for you. We have like ten minutes before anyone’s going to notice we’re gone.”

Kurt blinks at him. “Blaine, you won’t even leave the front end to go to the bathroom if you think someone might need your help. Did you really orchestrate all this so we can make out on your break?”

“Not just to make out!” Blaine insists. “I miss you and I know it’s been nuts and I wanted us to have a chance to see each other in all the chaos.”

“And also to make out?” Kurt teases.

“And also to make out,” Blaine admits.

Kurt’s actually kind of proud of Blaine, not to mention thrilled that they have a little time together before diving back into the madness of summer retail, so he decides not to waste any more of that time and pulls Blaine into a kiss to express his gratitude.

They walk out of the overflow room separately and a little disheveled, but no one seems to notice except for Heather who just gives him a knowing look when he walks back to his section and tries to start nonchalantly folding denim shorts.

 

**Back To School**

A month later, things with Blaine are great except for the part where Kurt thinks Blaine is avoiding him. He’s been a little scarce ever since the back to school displays went up, but as August drags on he’s only getting scarcer and Kurt’s not sure what to do. He assumes that it’s because he’s leaving for NYADA soon. They’d both known it was coming but had never really talked about it, and Kurt thinks it might be time.

After clocking out one day, he finds Blaine sitting on one of the benches in front of the store. “Waiting for me?” he jokes, but Blaine looks kind of anxious so he softens his tone and sits down. “Is everything okay?” he asks, looking at Blaine to try to figure out what’s wrong. “I know things have been weird with me about to leave but we never really talked abou-”

“I got into UPenn,” Blaine interrupts. “Technically I got in months ago and put down a deposit but I only decided that I want to go for sure this month.” He looks down at his feet.

“Blaine, that’s amazing!” Kurt throws an arm around his shoulder for a half-hug, but Blaine’s still looking at the ground. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

He looks embarrassed and Kurt thinks that at least he isn’t about to get dumped. “I know you’re leaving too but like you said, we haven’t talked about it. I didn’t want to ruin a good thing by bringing it up. I really like you Kurt, I don’t want to screw this up.”

Kurt at least gets Blaine to look at him when he says, “You know I would have noticed when you moved to Pittsburgh, right? I’m not going to just forget about you the second I don’t see you at work every day.” He smiles and hopes he’s being reassuring.

“That’s sweet, Kurt. Thank you,” Blaine says. “And UPenn is in Philadelphia.” Kurt freezes and takes a second to process the new information, which Blaine must take as a rejection because he’s quick to say, “I still should have said something though! I-”

“Wait, no,” Kurt holds up a hand. “Blaine, shut up for a second.” He grabs his phone out of his pocket, pulls up google maps and sure enough, “You’re an idiot.” Blaine bows his head and resolutely returns to staring at his shoes. “I’m sorry,” he starts, but Kurt doesn’t let him finish. “Philadelphia and New York are two hours away from each other,” Kurt says. “Probably less if you take the train. This isn’t a deal breaker, Blaine.”

Blaine, to his credit, does a remarkable job of trying not to look too hopeful, an effort which is made entirely futile when he ventures, “So what you’re saying is...”

Kurt sets his phone down on the bench and faces Blaine, placing each of his hands firmly on either side of Blaine’s face. “What I’m saying is,” he says, looking him directly in the eye, “long distance is hard. It sucks and it might not work but I’m willing to try to make it work, at least until it doesn’t anymore.”

Blaine responds by kissing him, both of them momentarily forgetting that they’re at work and that Kurt’s still in his uniform. The unexpected blast of a car horn startles them apart, and Kurt’s not convinced it isn’t from Carrie’s SUV, but they’re able to collect themselves and separate to a distance more appropriate for the workplace.

_Actually_ , Kurt things, _forget that_. He grabs his phone and his keys and heads for his car. When he’s halfway there he turns around to see Blaine still on the bench, looking dumbstruck. “Are you coming or what?” he asks, and it takes Blaine all of three seconds to be at his side.

They’re almost inseparable for the next few weeks; when they’re not working together they’re pushing the employee discount to its limit by stocking up on things for Kurt’s apartment and Blaine’s dorm. Kurt finds out that Rachel doesn’t actually own any silverware and Blaine finds out that his roommate won’t be bringing a mini fridge and there are last minute Wagner’s runs happening almost every day.

Kurt’s not the only one who’s surprised when Blaine shares his plans for business school, but he’s not surprised at all when Blaine tells him his goals. “I want to own a diner,” he says when asked why he’s combining business, entrepreneurial management, and marketing into a student-designed major. “Nothing fancy,” he continues at Kurt’s raised eyebrow. “I’m not a cook, I don’t care about fine dining or anything. I just want to be responsible for giving people a positive experience, even if they’re just getting lunch. I want regulars and teenagers on their first date and drunk people at midnight who really just need a sandwich. Even if it’s only a little bit, I want to help people. Have you heard about suspended coffees?”

Kurt hasn’t, and says so, so Blaine explains. “Basically,” he says, “if someone came into my diner and ordered two coffees, one for them and one suspended, they’d pay for both but leave with one. Then if someone who’s homeless or down on their luck or something comes in needing a coffee, I can give it to them for free. I’d want a whole menu like that.”

Sometimes Kurt secretly thinks that Blaine might be a little naive, that the world isn’t full of people who just want to buy coffee for strangers, but Blaine’s smart enough to make solid business decisions and optimistic enough to make it work in the face of cynicism. Kurt believes that if anyone can do it, Blaine can.

Kurt likes that Blaine helps him remember to see the best in people.

 

**Black Friday**

Black Friday is tough on people with their jobs. Wagner’s starts planning for it as soon as the back to school season is over, bringing in new seasonal hires as early as October to help with the rush. They order catering for the break room because the store stays open all night and they don’t lose the momentum until after Christmas is over.

Thanksgiving weekend in retail is stressful and hectic and unappealing.

Thanksgiving weekend in Ohio is boring and cold and unappealing.

Thanksgiving weekend in New York City is expensive and crowded and unappealing.

Thanksgiving weekend in Philadelphia, however, is pretty great. Kurt’s not so sure about the cold or the crowds or the stress, but from the comfort of Blaine’s dorm room he’s starting to see the appeal.


End file.
